Medical

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed and expanded interest in non-surgical healthcare robots worldwide. A growing number of hospitals and healthcare providers is realizing that robots can offer significant improvements in the delivery of care, laboratory efficiency, and rehabilitation, as seen in the examples below. The novel coronavirus has highlighted the global shortage of skilled medical staffers. In combination with sometimes laborious and slow laboratory test processes, it can limit access to life-saving treatments. ABB research hub demonstrates future of care In response to the talent shortage and laborious processes, biopharmaceutical and testing laboratories are turning to automation to improve productivity, safety, and consistency. In turn, higher-quality, more flexible care can enh...

The second annual Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum, which is scheduled for September in Boston, is seeking qualified and engaging expert speakers. Rich Mahoney, co-founder and CEO of Seismic, helped open the first Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum. By RBR Staff | March 24, 2020 WTWH Media has issued a call for presentations for the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum, which is scheduled for Sept. 24-25, 2020, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Submissions are due May 1, 2020. As demand increases worldwide for healthcare services, the opportunities and challenges for automation also increase. A multidisciplinary approach is needed for safe, effective, and commercially viable intelligent systems. The second annual Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum is the premiere confer...

Today, the Virtual Care Task Force (VCTF), a collaboration of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (Royal College) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), released its recommendations for enabling and expanding the implementation of virtual care in Canada. The report, Virtual care: Recommendations for scaling up virtual medical services, outlines 19 recommendations for creating a pan-Canadian approach to the virtualization of health services. To inform its work over the past 11 months, the task force formed four working groups – interoperability and governance, licensure and quality of care, payment models and medical education – to explore the current barriers to using virtual care in Canada and to identify possible ...

Researchers from the University Hospital Zurich, ETH Zurich, Wyss Zurich and the University of Zurich have developed a machine that repairs injured human livers and keeps them alive outside the body for one week. This breakthrough may increase the number of available organs for transplantation saving many lives of patients with severe liver diseases or cancer. Until now, livers could be stored safely outside the body for only a few hours. With the novel perfusion technology, livers — and even injured livers — can now be kept alive outside of the body for an entire week. This is a major breakthrough in transplantation medicine, which may increase the number of available organs for transplantation and save many lives of patients suffering from severe liver disease or a variety of cancers. In...

By Dr. Sandy Buchman A few weeks ago, the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) held interesting discussions on health innovation. The objective: to reinvent health with artificial intelligence, therapeutic innovation, 3D printing and telehealth. A whirlwind of innovation surrounds us and a revolution is knocking at the door of our health system. However, an important question arises: What added value do these technological innovations bring to patients? An Ipsos survey conducted on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) last summer provides some very interesting answers. According to the survey, more and more Canadians are welcoming the advent of technology to facilitate access to a health care system that is struggling to fulfill its mandate. Nearly seven in 10 ...

Winterlight Labs development team. Courtesy: John Hryniuk Photography By Dianne Daniel It begins with small mistakes. People forget their medication, miss an appointment or have trouble managing their diabetes. Eventually the errors compound and for many older adults, even slight cognitive impairment leads to a negative health outcome. This is the scenario Winterlight Labs is aiming to prevent with its newest pilot project. Partnering with VHA Home HealthCare, the company is testing its proprietary natural speech analyzer with 50 Ontario seniors throughout 2019. The goal is to refine the tool’s effectiveness as a clinical decision support tool. “We’re addressing a gap in the market,” says Winterlight Labs CEO Liam Kaufman. “When someone has a diagnosis of dementia, we know they need help m...

Nuclear Medicine is a growing field with innovations in technology, diagnostic procedures and therapeutic purposes. Variety of workplaces including hospitals, universities and research facilities are all involved in producing, researching and administering radiopharmaceuticals. With the increase and widespread use of nuclear medicine, the demand for shielding increases as well. There are many shielding products geared towards the nuclear medicine industry. Below are some of the common shielding products that would be used in a lab or clinic setting. Lead and Tungsten Pigs A commonly used product in the industry is vials for storing syringes and radioisotopes. Generally, in the medical field a pig is a round container made of lead or tungsten that is used for shieldi...

CAR was present at Minister Bains’ announcement related to AI funding, June 2019. On May 23, 2019, in Montreal, Quebec, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation Science and Economic Development, announced that the government will invest up to $49 million in the Digital Health and Discovery Platform (DHDP). The DHDP is a network of partners, including the Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR) that is led by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) and Imagia. Their purpose is to work together to establish a cutting-edge Canada-wide health data platform, which is patient-centric and upholds the highest standards for data, privacy, security and safety. The DHDP will greatly empower TFRI’s Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres network. For the first time, cancer centres and research ...

Learn about your lens options before you see your surgeon “The stars at night? I hadn’t seen them for a decade. They are breathtaking,” recounts Tracey Dorey, retired Vancouver school teacher. “I’ve always loved nature, colours and textures, but I didn’t realize how much I was missing until I had cataract surgery.” Tracey was among 2.5 million Canadians living with cataracts each year. A recent survey commissioned by Leger, revealed that over half of Canadians do not know much about cataracts and cataract surgery; and 59 per cent are unaware that there are options to treat cataracts and other vision conditions at once.[1] The survey also found that fear is a barrier to having the procedure done despite the fact that cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed procedures in Canad...

Mackenzie Health has been named a recipient of the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for the thoughtful application of health information and technology to substantially improve clinical care delivery, patient outcomes and population health. By Christina Cindric At Mackenzie Health, staff across the organization have worked hard to integrate innovative, smart health care technologies into the way care is delivered to patients. The approach to digital health has resulted in the organization becoming the first Canadian acute care hospital to receive the highest certification for electronic medical record adoption – HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7. This year, Mackenzie Health was also named a recipient of the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for the thoughtful application of health...

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